After several people were shot in separate incidents in Boston during the past weekend, the candidates for mayor know gun violence is an issue many voters are most focused on.

Charlotte Golar Richie said Boston felt like a safe city for a long time. But violence has been prevalent in her district for a while.

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"With the recent incidents, that crime is not just confined to certain neighborhoods. It's not like they have a force field up. It can bleed out and seep out and head out to other neighborhoods. That's why the entire city has to care about this issue of crime," she said.

Most of the candidates agree the short-term plan is obvious but difficult to execute.

"There's too many guns in the inner city. I know that every urban, inner city has been blighted with it, but Boston since Marathon Monday, there's been, I think, 140-plus shootings, and that's far too many," candidate Marty Walsh said.

"When you think about easy access to firearms and then the willingness to shoot somebody for the most insignificant of conflicts, we know we have a much larger social problem to address," candidate Dan Conley said.

The long-term solution will cost money and even more difficult to address.

"But we want to solve this in the long haul? It's about a public health approach about how we deal with addiction, mental health trauma and also it's our schools, it's our dropouts are the people most likely to end up incarcerated. They put a low ceiling on their futures and start to make really bad decisions," John Connolly said.

"The next mayor of Boston has got to be serious about community policing. The police department looking like the residents it serves, but also serious about crating pathways out of poverty so that families can join the middle class.," candidate Felix Arroyo said.